Reservoir plan smart for future s Water project latest step on road built by Farr

At a time when clarity is most important, misunderstanding prevailed at an Eaton meeting Monday when farmers, water managers and town officials met to discuss proposals for a vast regional water storage project.

At issue was the Northern Integrated Supply Project, a network of new reservoirs and pipelines that would serve the needs of northern Colorado’s fastest-growing rural communities and water districts.

Representatives of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the water-supply agency that backs the project, got more than an earful from northern Weld County farmers: “The farmers get screwed and the cities get everything,” one from Gill said.

We have supported the project in the past and, after hearing from farmers and small-town residents, we continue to do so. Here’s why:

* Unless someone devises an economical and practical way to wall off the northern Front Range from outsiders, the region’s population will continue to grow, and most of the growth will come to small towns. Johnstown, Milliken, Evans, Severance, Windsor, Fort Lupton and the Tri-Towns of Firestone, Frederick and Dacono will lead Weld’s population boom.

* A water supply for the newcomers has to come from somewhere. If not from new storage projects, it will come from farm fields. Simple as that: Growth will happen, and without new water, farmland will dry up.

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* The two reservoirs included in the project — one northwest of Fort Collins, the other near Galeton — would store water in wet years that otherwise would become a windfall for Nebraska and other downstream users. It’s not that we don’t hold the rights to it. We do. Trouble is, we have no means in place to store the water we own.

* Once a water-storage solution is found — and, pending approval, that could be just six years — everyone wins: small-town residents, rural water districts and farmers.

The logic of the new supply project is solid enough that Weld communities are flocking to the idea. Eaton was the most recent signatory to the $350 million project, joining 13 other northern Front Range towns. Severance is almost certainly the next to join. Others, including the Tri-Towns, are likely to follow suit.

We know that some farmers have legitimate concerns. For example, bolstering the region’s water supply could erode the relative value of water rights they hold, rights that for some farmers are equivalent to city slickers’ 401(K) accounts.

But we in Weld enjoy a legacy of water wisdom, with pioneering planners such as W.D. Farr and Charles Hansen leading the way to self-reliance and assurance that enough water will be at hand for all.

The Northern Integrated Supply Project is the 21st century’s first step along that well-planned road, and one we need to take.